Fidler Siphons Last-Minute Cash Through DSCC

NYC Councilman Lew Fidler, who is facing off against Republican David Storobin in today’s special election for former Sen. Carl Kruger’s Brooklyn seat, sent $20,000 to the DSCC today, according to the state Board of Election’s 24-hour filing list.

That’s on top of the $10,000 Fidler forwarded to the DSCC on March 16, $30,000 (in $10,000 increments) on March 14, and $40,000 transferred into its account as of the 11-day pre-special election filing. At that point, the DSCC reported spending $60,458 on his behalf.

Candidates often send campaign cash to a party or conference operation to take advantage of their reduced rate for mailers and to pay for GOTV, ads or polling.

As of 11 days prior to today’s election, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee had spent $123,866 to assist Storobin. That’s considerably more than the Dems are spending on Fidler, which stands to reason, given his fundraising advantage and the district’s Democratic enrollment edge, but it’s still not exactly the “tremendous” amount Storobin once boasted the GOP would be dumping into this race.

The post special election reports will tell a fuller story of the last-minute spending on both sides, which, unlike the last-minute giving, isn’t required to be reported to the BofE.

Of course, whoever wins today isn’t going to have long to enjoy his new seat, the 27th SD is essentially ceasing to exist, making way for a new so-called “super Jewish” district. Fidler has been drawn into Senate Minority Leader John Sampson’s district by the GOP, but has vowed to run for re-election if he wins today.

Aside from the $60,000 Fidler sent their way of late, the Senate Dems received two big infusions of cash today – $25,000 to their housekeeing account, which has no contribution limits, from PHRMA; and another $25,000 from the Empire Dental PAC.

The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, which has four seats in play today, received a big boost from the Uniformed Firefighters Association ($25,000) yesterday and also got $50,000 from the Drive Committee, which is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ PAC. The same committee gave the Senate Republicans $25,000 last week.

Another big bump to DACC came from NYSUT, which gace $35,000. Overall, the Democrats in both houses have been leading the last-minute money race. City&State’s Laura Nahmias has more on this.